so it's okay to use slurs, but only if you really mean it

So the media has to actually spend time covering this issue, because it is such a difficult call: is it acceptable to refer to a U.S. Senator as a "white bitch"?

Seriously - sometimes it's an accurate thing to say, eh?

Personally, I prefer the term "scrotum-slasher".



Thanks to Shakesville for their Hillary Sexism Watch.

It's hard to say what the best part of this exchange really is, aside from the overall awesomeness of even debating on national television in 2008 whether it's appropriate to refer to a woman as a "white bitch."

...when you can be a woman eminently qualified for the most important, most respected, most difficult job in the entire nation, and one of the most important, most respected, most difficult jobs in the entire world, and still be reduced to a "white bitch" by some wanker on CNN without anyone batting an eye—because, ya know, some women are "named that" for a reason.

Though I disagree with Shakesville on whether specifying the white in white bitch is meant to put down women of color. I think that was clearly a variation on Hillary ain't never been called a n--- *

From the transcript:

Jeffrey Toobin: I think Hillary Clinton is dead right. There was a column in the New York Times not too long ago, where it talked about some of the humor in the campaign, and the punchline was, was a line that, that was, that, that Hillary Clinton was a white bitch. You couldn't say that—I mean, that is acceptable about a woman; you couldn't say the equivalent thing about a man, and I, I mean, about a black person, and I think it's appalling, but I think she's absolutely right that there has been a level of sexism that is—

[crosstalk]

Alex Castellanos: If I can disagree, I think you're dead wrong. She's dead wrong. And I think she thinks her problem is she's a woman; her problem is she's Hillary Clinton. And some women, by the way, are named that and it's accurate.

Toobin: Well…

Castellanos: So she's, she is a tough lady, tough in politics, that's been her great strength, but, let's face it, she can be a very abrasive, aggressive, uhhhh, irritating person, and a lot of voters, I think, see her that way.

Gloria Borger: Yeah, but a lot of voters don't, you know? And you can't—

Castellanos: It doesn't have to be unanimous.

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* the stereotype being summoned here: blame (scapegoating). White women cannot possibly know what it is to suffer, because their whiteness makes them responsible for suffering, which logically means they cannot also be a victim (you can only have one or the other). After all, what lynching was not done on behalf of a white woman? And only white women get featured on the news when they are kidnapped, raped, and murdered - so their suffering must be less significant than that of those more-deserving-of-compassion minority women who are kidnapped, raped, and murdered. (In fact, it is because they chose to hog the news that these other women aren't getting reported on, right?)

Another stereotype being summoned: the pampered poodle. The wives of high-ranking officials live perfect lives of luxury and decadence. The fact that they are 'seen and not heard' is taken as proof that they aren't doing anything to earn their keep. They just sit around popping the proverbial bon-bons and soaking up male money, which they don't help earn at all. They whine and complain but you don't need to take them seriously: they live in the most perfect state a female can aspire to (the princess) and if they want anything more than that, they're ungrateful. The word 'white' is not accidental. You have to be 'white' to be a true princess. And it is not coincidental that the word 'bitch' refers to a dog - for the rules a princess must live by are a lot like what we expect of our pet dogs, who are supposed to be grateful. They are not supposed to bite or be ill-tempered.